Hezbollah is in the final stage of preparation to attack Israel with sophisticated weapons, according to a high-level commander of the terrorist group.

Tabnak, an outlet of Iran’s Islamic regime, said an unidentified Hezbollah commander, in an interview with the Kuwaiti paper Alrai, thanked Syrian President Bashar Assad for keeping his promise to provide those weapons to Hezbollah.

“The weapons given to Hezbollah will change the balance of power,” he said.

“We have in recent days done extensive operations for reconnaissance on Israel’s central and sensitive military and infrastructural installations in different areas and also on Israel’s commando posts and peacekeeping forces in the Golan Heights,” he said, “to prepare for the coming battle with the occupying regime.”

The commander revealed some of the weapons given by Syria to Hezbollah, including Pantsir (SA-22 Greyhound) surface-to-air missiles, SAM 5 surface-to-air missiles and the Russian anti-tank Kornet missiles. However, the commander also hinted that soon Hezbollah will receive the advanced and dreaded ship-killer Yakhont missiles from Assad.

U.S. officials, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had urged Russian President Vladimir Putin not to go ahead with his arms sales to Syria, including the S-300 antiaircraft system and the feared Yakhont cruise missiles. But despite their pleas, Russian officials said they were honoring contracts with Syria, and those weapons Russia will send to Syria may eventually wind up in the hands of Hezbollah and Iran.

The Hezbollah commander also said that Assad has ordered formation of resistance forces similar to Hezbollah, arming them with various weapons, for the confrontation with Israel.

On May 9, days after Israeli warplanes struck shipments of advanced Iranian weapons on the outskirts of Damascus intended for Hezbollah, the terrorist group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, boasted that Syria will supply “game-changing” weapons to Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, the British Sunday Times reported Sunday that Syria has begun deploying advanced surface-to-surface missiles aimed at Tel Aviv to be launched if Israeli warplanes strike inside Syria again.

According to a source within the Iranian intelligence apparatus, there is now little hope the Assad regime can be saved, hence the panic by Russia in arming Assad with further sophisticated weapons in a warning to U.S. and NATO to stay out of the conflict. He said Iran’s rapid shipment of sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah is part of that strategy. By reinforcing its arsenal, Hezbollah can strike all of Israel and, as a last resort, engage Israel from within Syria, further complicating the already-chaotic region.

Israel, worried about the disintegration of Syria and the further arming of Hezbollah, has warned continuously that giving “game-changing” weapons to Hezbollah is its red line.

Despite the open Iranian threats against Israel, the source said, regime officials have no intention of engaging the Jewish state directly unless America launches a direct attack against Syria or if there is an attack on Iran. In fact, he said, Iranian officials are worried about Israel attacking their nuclear facilities as Iran seeks to create a nuclear-armed state that would then become untouchable.

However, Iranians have devised several plans to engage Israel through their forces in Syria and their proxies, such as Hezbollah, to draw the Jewish state into a wider conflict should Israel continue to attack Syrian armaments facilities.

The source added that the regime also has devised plans for terrorist attacks against Israel, the U.S. homeland and their interests around the world as a warning to leave Syria alone and to stop the pressure on the Islamic regime because of its illicit nuclear program. The fall of Assad, they think, would be a culmination of an effort to then target the clerical regime in Iran.

As reported exclusively on WND on May 13, Iran not only has formed a new coalition of terrorist masterminds among its Quds Forces, Hezbollah and al-Qaida to attack the U.S. homeland, but has also given the go-ahead for three imminent operations within the U.S. to change the perception of security in America, which it believes has helped empower America’s actions in the Middle East.